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Do any of the architects or construction folk on this forum know how much it would be to throw a clear coat with metallic flakes or another layer of paint infused with metallic flakes on the library? I think some shine would go a long way in making it look cooler and less imposing.

Do any of the architects or construction folk on this forum know how much it would be to throw a clear coat with metallic flakes or another layer of paint infused with metallic flakes on the library? I think some shine would go a long way in making it look cooler and less imposing.
...

that's kind of like thinking a pontiac aztec or a volkswagen thing could be made beautiful with a new paint job...

the issue is less the material or it's colour than it is the ungainly and awkward proportions and angles of the renovation/addition.

on the other hand, it is one if the few things they could have done that actually makes the library parkade entrance on 100 street look playful and colourful (which probably means it will get redone with the south plaza so as not to show up the library ).

What? They are going to add a new smooth layer over the corrugated look? If you're saying wait until the construction is complete and the roadwork is done - and people will see things differently and love - your wrong. The construction clutter is currently a distraction and once removed the ugliness of corrugated panels will stand out further. No amount of lipstick on this pig will improve it other than a new skin. We need a global kickstarter program to raise $$ to replace that barn siding with something befitting the capital city in its most important square. This project is a complete **** up. The Library Board and its yappy President deserve all the criticism they are getting. Frankly fire the CEO.

What? They are going to add a new smooth layer over the corrugated look? If you're saying wait until the construction is complete and the roadwork is done - and people will see things differently and love - your wrong. The construction clutter is currently a distraction and once removed the ugliness of corrugated panels will stand out further. No amount of lipstick on this pig will improve it other than a new skin. We need a global kickstarter program to raise $$ to replace that barn siding with something befitting the capital city in its most important square. This project is a complete **** up. The Library Board and its yappy President deserve all the criticism they are getting. Frankly fire the CEO.

You would expect that from the CEO who only most likely cares about the experience inside (I don't think the CEO comes from a business environment, most likely went up through the ranks). Question is, was this raised in front of City Council to inform them that the exterior is going to look horrible and given that this the most prominent location in the City, they needed to inject some additional$ to rectify the budget shortfalls?

Lot of questions, with very little in terms of meaningful answers. Damage is already done.

Do any of the architects or construction folk on this forum know how much it would be to throw a clear coat with metallic flakes or another layer of paint infused with metallic flakes on the library? I think some shine would go a long way in making it look cooler and less imposing.
...

that's kind of like thinking a pontiac aztec or a volkswagen thing could be made beautiful with a new paint job...

the issue is less the material or it's colour than it is the ungainly and awkward proportions and angles of the renovation/addition.

on the other hand, it is one if the few things they could have done that actually makes the library parkade entrance on 100 street look playful and colourful (which probably means it will get redone with the south plaza so as not to show up the library ).

I know some literal gloss won't cure the overall issues with the structure, but whats done is done. They're not going to spend the money to re-do it for another fifty years. We may be able to convince them to throw an extra coat of paint on it, if its not to expensive. To use your analogy, we're now stuck with the Aztec; would you rather it stay a flat colour, or would your rather we at least glam it up a bit?

Do any of the architects or construction folk on this forum know how much it would be to throw a clear coat with metallic flakes or another layer of paint infused with metallic flakes on the library? I think some shine would go a long way in making it look cooler and less imposing.
...

that's kind of like thinking a pontiac aztec or a volkswagen thing could be made beautiful with a new paint job...

the issue is less the material or it's colour than it is the ungainly and awkward proportions and angles of the renovation/addition.

on the other hand, it is one if the few things they could have done that actually makes the library parkade entrance on 100 street look playful and colourful (which probably means it will get redone with the south plaza so as not to show up the library ).

I know some literal gloss won't cure the overall issues with the structure, but whats done is done. They're not going to spend the money to re-do it for another fifty years. We may be able to convince them to throw an extra coat of paint on it, if its not to expensive. To use your analogy, we're now stuck with the Aztec; would you rather it stay a flat colour, or would your rather we at least glam it up a bit?

i don't believe it's possible to "glam it up a bit". (a) it is what it is, and (b) anything you try and "glam it up" with is only going to high-light, not hide.

the best thing we can do at this point is give it a fitting nick-name and make the most of it. austin has "keep austin weird", maybe we could see how much we could play up "biblio-tank" or some of the other creative monikers that have been put forward?

maybe we can do an ad campaign like vegas' "what happens in vegas stays in vegas" but ours could feature "tanks for the memories"?

maybe we can sell glass fish-tanks that look like the library?

maybe we can have a black and white and grey film festival?

maybe we can declare the south plaza a grey zone for telling off-color jokes?

maybe we can add a hitching post reserved for the old grey mare?

maybe we could make early grey our civic drink? or do an entire menu featuring early grey?

and maybe while we're at it we can also look at the processes that enabled this to happen in the first place so it doesn't happen again?

Do any of the architects or construction folk on this forum know how much it would be to throw a clear coat with metallic flakes or another layer of paint infused with metallic flakes on the library? I think some shine would go a long way in making it look cooler and less imposing.
...

that's kind of like thinking a pontiac aztec or a volkswagen thing could be made beautiful with a new paint job...

the issue is less the material or it's colour than it is the ungainly and awkward proportions and angles of the renovation/addition.

on the other hand, it is one if the few things they could have done that actually makes the library parkade entrance on 100 street look playful and colourful (which probably means it will get redone with the south plaza so as not to show up the library ).

I know some literal gloss won't cure the overall issues with the structure, but whats done is done. They're not going to spend the money to re-do it for another fifty years. We may be able to convince them to throw an extra coat of paint on it, if its not to expensive. To use your analogy, we're now stuck with the Aztec; would you rather it stay a flat colour, or would your rather we at least glam it up a bit?

i don't believe it's possible to "glam it up a bit". (a) it is what it is, and (b) anything you try and "glam it up" with is only going to high-light, not hide.

the best thing we can do at this point is give it a fitting nick-name and make the most of it. austin has "keep austin weird", maybe we could see how much we could play up "biblio-tank" or some of the other creative monikers that have been put forward?

maybe we can do an ad campaign like vegas' "what happens in vegas stays in vegas" but ours could feature "tanks for the memories"?

maybe we can sell glass fish-tanks that look like the library?

maybe we can have a black and white and grey film festival?

maybe we can declare the south plaza a grey zone for telling off-color jokes?

maybe we can add a hitching post reserved for the old grey mare?

maybe we could make early grey our civic drink? or do an entire menu featuring early grey?

and maybe while we're at it we can also look at the processes that enabled this to happen in the first place so it doesn't happen again?

Paint some horizontal lines on it to make it look like rows of books on shelves, with the odd book tilted one way or the other.

Hey maclac, can you cut it out with your positive comments on this thing? Many of us don't like it... give it a rest.

Just kidding. I encourage everyone to share their opinions. That's what this place is for. Debate. Discussion. Sharing of Opinions. The world would be a very boring place is we all liked the same thing and shared the same opinions. Regardless of whether you like this project or don't, or are indifferent either way, discussion is good.

MACLAC. If you don't like a poster, just use the ignore function, like SDM has suggested. I'm sure he has me and everyone else on ignore already, unless you have pom-poms out and cheer on everything. "It's okay, its only Edmonton, we can accept mediocrity"

With extreme offense man.....could you please cut it out with the negative comments on this thing. Point taken - you hate it - not everyone does.....give it a rest....

"Make me cry?" I'm starting to think that perhaps - you were fired from the EPL system as a page back in the day - cuz you couldn't figure out the "dewey decimal point" system - ergo why you started this "smear campaign" against the Milner and hence trying to get your name in the news?

With extreme offense man.....could you please cut it out with the negative comments on this thing. Point taken - you hate it - not everyone does.....give it a rest....

"Make me cry?" I'm starting to think that perhaps - you were fired from the EPL system as a page back in the day - cuz you couldn't figure out the "dewey decimal point" system - ergo why you started this "smear campaign" against the Milner and hence trying to get your name in the news?

it was the dewey decimal classification (ddc). it was/is sometimes called the dewey decimal system but never - to my knowledge - "dewey decimal point" system and i spent lots of time rifling through those cards on rails in their miniature drawers before it went electronic.

I'm starting to thing maclac works for EPL and can't stand that people don't love the new biblotank.

Bibliotank. I’m starting to like it.

So the design is a nod to our history of book mobiles!

We can add the Milner into the collection:

Or it’s design is symbolic of Edmonton’s history in many other ways (industry, diversity, non-elitism):

Just Getting Started

Hill was not a blushing fan of popular culture. For generations, librar- ians of taste have smuggled smutty crime novels out of the building in their briefcases, careful not to reveal their pop desires. Hill was equally concerned about the dangers_political, social and cultural_of elitism. From the board minutes and from the annual reports it is easy to detect
a considerable streak of sensitivity in his writing; Hill constantly argued
that libraries were for everyone, not just a highly educated, refined class of Edmontonians with grand houses in the correct neighbourhoods.

He wanted city managers and politicians to understand that this “substantial literature” was moving through every apartment and house in the city, and changing lives. University graduates were taking books from the library but so were plumbers and bricklayers.
“The proportion of registered borrowers, with regard to occupation, for example, is closely parallel to the proportion as determined from the city directory. For example, the proportion of mechanics on the library register is about the same as the proportion of mechanics in the direc- tory. This distribution ought to be gratifying to the Board as proving the general usefulness of the institution entrusted to their care. No one class of the community is being favoured at the expense of any other class.”2

Pg. 67-68

“The men and women being displaced by machines and mergers are being displaced faster than our economic structure can absorb them. These surplus unemployed will have to ‘learn or perish.’ There must be some provision for alternative training. The public library is a most important factor in this re-education.”2

Re-education may have been a way out of the Depression, but that didn’t prevent staff shortages and fewer book orders, fewer programs, fewer hours. One of the chief assistants of the Edmonton Public Library and, for a few years, acting chief librarian, Grace Dobie, looked back on the 1930s as a time of surprise and wonder.

“Our greatest circulation and our highest point in purchases were reached during the Depression years, particularly in 1932. It is remark- able how closely our circulation follows prosperity, in an inverse ratio.”3

Pg.99

“When he arrived in Edmonton, Maloney was not impressed by the cultural diversity of the city. Too many people from other places, too much immigration in general, too much racial intermarriage, too much French spoken, too many Catholics. His reading and his recent experi- ences had drawn him to become a member of an American organization called the Ku Klux Klan_based on Anglo-Saxon purity and “moral virtue.”4 At a time of high unemployment, the idea that immigrants were both muddying up the ethnic mix and taking jobs from Edmonton’s accent-less,...”

Pg. 83

“The bill was, of course, unpopular with librarians. If censorship can happen to newspapers it can and will happen in libraries: ...”

Pg. 90

“Hill was having trouble making his plea for support. The staff was thin, and thinning, and the budget for new books was minuscule.

“There was very little controversy,” says historian Tony Cashman. “When Ethelbert Hill was running the library it did not get involved in moulding public opinion. The library, then, was very solemn. A bit more quiet than the church down the street. They were sort of like temples, which is maybe why so many were designed like temples.”
...
Pg 91

Me either. My belief about it being an ugly, malformed building dates back to before construction started & it's turned out even worse than anticipated, cementing the Milner as one of the ugliest, least appealing buildings in a city that's full of architectural blunders.

Giving less of a damn than ever… Can't laugh at the ignorant if you ignore them!

anytime a project needs to get value engineered as much as this one has from the original inspiration to what we have now, it's better to just start over I feel. Value engineering any value out of the structure - might as well just have built a functional box.

“When the designers were working on the jacket of my new book, someone suggested including a question mark after the title and giving the whole a mirror finish. Curious browsers would be immediately confronted with a deadly question. How beautiful are you?”...

“...The tides of taste go back and forth, erasing aesthetic certainties. This is a truth so disturbing that most of our assumptions about art are immediately and ruinously undermined. For example, two years before it was finished, ...”

“Thus Ferrari, with impeccable credentials in the manufacture of gorgeous automobile sculpture, has not made a beautiful car for a long time: its signature curves have been stolen by Koreans.

So, at the end of beauty’s road, Ferrari design is seeking confrontation. ...”

Art or Eyesore? The Eiffel Tower History You Probably Didn't Know — The Anthrotorian

...Though the tower is now considered to be a cultural and global icon of France, beloved by the majority of its citizens, this was not always the case.

“Some of the most influential members of the art establishment banded together in a group called The Committee of Three Hundred in order to defend what they considered to be “the untouched beauty of Paris”.

They insisted that the “metal asparagus”, a useless monstrosity, would humiliate and overshadow beloved monuments like Notre Dame, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe.

... and how we can also get used to living with a lot of crap - if it’s got the right spin behind it.

Meet the man who ruined a century of cities: Mallick | The Star

Who would you travel back in time to kill? For humanity’s benefit, I mean. It’s one of those trick questions designed for insomnia or a long bus trip and last night, awake until 3 a.m., I answered it.

It would be Le Corbusier, the Swiss twit who did more damage to built structures than the Luftwaffe. Architects have a lot to answer for but they have been fighting an uphill battle since Le Corbusier slithered into Paris in 1907 and began persuading the world that buildings should be ugly. Architecture lost, we all lost. (He wanted to level Paris. Online, view that vision. It looks like a highrise prison camp.)
If you think the glass towers that clog Toronto — with their cheap construction, dearth of beauty and their ability to turn a room into both a freezer and an easy-bake oven — are reprehensible, meet the man who started it all.

...
Wolfe wrote in a troublemaking little 1981 book called From Bauhaus to Our House that anyone who questioned the International Style was reprimanded. “These days, it’s too expensive to build in any other style.” But, said Wolfe, “It was not too expensive, merely more expensive. The critical point was what people would or would not put up with esthetically.”

Me either. My belief about it being an ugly, malformed building dates back to before construction started & it's turned out even worse than anticipated, cementing the Milner as one of the ugliest, least appealing buildings in a city that's full of architectural blunders.

I don't agree. The Milner was a nice building with clean lines, good proportions, warm colors and nicely sited on the property to welcome users. The interior was nice by 1970's standards and needed updating, especially the lighting (too much florescent) , windows and central skylights.

The addition to the main entrance IMHO hampered both the exterior and interior appearance. The north side became congested due to the expansion and conflicts with pedestrians and people waiting for buses.

Advocating a better Edmonton through effective, efficient and economical transit.

Sat in the square for lunch the other day and just looked at the library for an hour. The problem I see is the use of the light coloured zinc and the standing seem installation. Or at least the orientation of the seems. they are perpendicular to the actual lines of the building. There is also a lack of windows, its as if when cutting the budget they decided to cut out windows. Proportions are all wrong on this building.

Sat in the square for lunch the other day and just looked at the library for an hour. The problem I see is the use of the light coloured zinc and the standing seem installation. Or at least the orientation of the seems. they are perpendicular to the actual lines of the building. There is also a lack of windows, its as if when cutting the budget they decided to cut out windows. Proportions are all wrong on this building.

It’s a total CLUSTERFRICK. Makes this City look cheap, desperate, and is overbearing on Sir Winston Churchill Square.

Well City Council has the perfect view of this mess from city hall so I hope they enjoy it every day

Oh my. The symbolism it evokes.

The seat of government (of control over the people, of imposition of rules for the people, of forced uniformity) sitting in a highly symmetrical building looking out across the park (a park they paved over) at an asymmetrical seat of learning that reflects knowledge coming and going in all directions, much of the light of knowledge being blocked but bits of it entering the building and transforming lives... from the outside the vertical seams drawing the eyes towards the sky and the universe beyond... the City Hall, a rock and glass edifice anchored to the ground and the Library a ship of knowledge looking like it’s ready to take off to explore the universe... Yadda yadda yadda...

Finally drove by this "masterpiece" this week on an downtown trip and was astounded at how much worse this looks from closer up. The outside skin looks twisted and warped in places. I've seen far better looking farm machine sheds.

Do we know for sure whether what's there now is the final skin of the building or not? They've taken down much of the scaffolding and it almost feels like they're wrapping things up to a certain extent from my walk by this afternoon.

I mean the way it looks now isn't dissimilar to the NW Police HQ which is from the same team to my understanding...

Do we know for sure whether what's there now is the final skin of the building or not? They've taken down much of the scaffolding and it almost feels like they're wrapping things up to a certain extent from my walk by this afternoon.

I mean the way it looks now isn't dissimilar to the NW Police HQ which is from the same team to my understanding...

City Hall really effed this up worse than I even thought if it is.

It sure is different on the early pictures that were put out to sell the public on this project. From what I have gathered here, it seems like some other parts of the project went over budget, so they cut back on the exterior finish.

It looks like left overs from an industrial park or a garden shed. Millions spent and the result is uglier than what was there before. The city seems to have a surprising variety of ways to mess up its infrastructure projects.

we've had guests from singapore here for the last five days. our new library's exterior was one of those things that will have them leave shaking their heads. another on their long disappointment list is the state of our streets and road closures in general but downtown in particular.

on the other hand, on another list they were impressed by our river valley (they don't know we went out of our way to take the walterdale and avoid the low level) and enjoyed the exhibits at the ram, breakfast at madison's, and walking around the neighborhood in august rather than december.

In most countries or cities around the world, many will get fired over a similar project failure....but this is Edmonton where mediocre, over budget and schedule, (and nothing close to original render) will be celebrated as a huge success.

of course no one will be fired/ be disciplined. it's the city of edm, after all. i love this town, but it's getting more difficult each passing day to root for it. not when there's such incompetence at the top of civic leadership. i truly get the feeling that city hall and those who work for the city in edm tower are completely disconnected from reality.

of course no one will be fired/ be disciplined. it's the city of edm, after all. i love this town, but it's getting more difficult each passing day to root for it. not when there's such incompetence at the top of civic leadership. i truly get the feeling that city hall and those who work for the city in edm tower are completely disconnected from reality.

When this structure gets reclad in the near future what are we looking at for cost - 10-20 million?

it's not going to get reclad in the near future or even in the far-away future.

and even if it did get reclad, that won't change the building structure behind it or the awkward angles in that structure or the circulation within it or the openings in it...

if the cladding was smooth instead of utilizing upstand seams or if it was bright blue or neon pink or lime green, it wouldn't be any more pleasing to the eye than the zinc that's there now (which at least should acquire a patina similar to the zinc on the art gallery of alberta).

of course no one will be fired/ be disciplined. it's the city of edm, after all. i love this town, but it's getting more difficult each passing day to root for it. not when there's such incompetence at the top of civic leadership. i truly get the feeling that city hall and those who work for the city in edm tower are completely disconnected from reality.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it wins some award.

I'm sure it will. They have the Razzies for awful films, as well as Rotten Tomatoes. The award this creature gets will fall into the same type of dubious distinction.

When this structure gets reclad in the near future what are we looking at for cost - 10-20 million?

it's not going to get reclad in the near future or even in the far-away future.

and even if it did get reclad, that won't change the building structure behind it or the awkward angles in that structure or the circulation within it or the openings in it...

if the cladding was smooth instead of utilizing upstand seams or if it was bright blue or neon pink or lime green, it wouldn't be any more pleasing to the eye than the zinc that's there now (which at least should acquire a patina similar to the zinc on the art gallery of alberta).

Further to this and contradicting everybody's comments about 'cheaping out', I've heard that the zinc used was around $70/sqft. So I feel like there won't be much appetite to replace it.

We all know the basic structure is not going to change so we are left with the exterior finish and what can be done.

The ribbed effect has to go - Glass, metal with a better finish will have to be looked as an option.

There is no way this structure can or should remain as it is.

The material they were installing under the zinc cladding looked sharper. It threw me off. I was thinking (and praying) that it was the real deal and the stuff they have on now was some temporary protective layer.

Maybe we can organize a group to tear off the zinc one night and give the underlay a chance to shine?

When this structure gets reclad in the near future what are we looking at for cost - 10-20 million?

it's not going to get reclad in the near future or even in the far-away future.

and even if it did get reclad, that won't change the building structure behind it or the awkward angles in that structure or the circulation within it or the openings in it...

if the cladding was smooth instead of utilizing upstand seams or if it was bright blue or neon pink or lime green, it wouldn't be any more pleasing to the eye than the zinc that's there now (which at least should acquire a patina similar to the zinc on the art gallery of alberta).

of course no one will be fired/ be disciplined. it's the city of edm, after all. i love this town, but it's getting more difficult each passing day to root for it. not when there's such incompetence at the top of civic leadership. i truly get the feeling that city hall and those who work for the city in edm tower are completely disconnected from reality.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it wins some award.

I'm sure it will. They have the Razzies for awful films, as well as Rotten Tomatoes. The award this creature gets will fall into the same type of dubious distinction.

You’re missing my point. Pick any year and google the architectural award winners. Ours is a shoo-in for some amazing sounding award.
Check out all these beauties:

of course no one will be fired/ be disciplined. it's the city of edm, after all. i love this town, but it's getting more difficult each passing day to root for it. not when there's such incompetence at the top of civic leadership. i truly get the feeling that city hall and those who work for the city in edm tower are completely disconnected from reality.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it wins some award.

I'm sure it will. They have the Razzies for awful films, as well as Rotten Tomatoes. The award this creature gets will fall into the same type of dubious distinction.

You’re missing my point. Pick any year and google the architectural award winners. Ours is a shoo-in for some amazing sounding award.
Check out all these beauties:

A little late to the dead-horse beating party, but I thought a direct comparison of final rendering vs reality would be appropriate, along with EPL's statement from last month:

The final design was approved in September of 2016 by the Edmonton Design Committee and this is the rendering we’ve been using ever since. If you view the building in the day or night, it looks true to this image. While some may still dislike it when it is complete, the building will look different when the space is open and animated, and the site is no longer a construction zone.

...We are surprised that some people are surprised by the building. The final approved design has been public since 2016.

In the midst of the past months' drama, the Live Cam page on the EPL website was taken down at some point. If EPL is as confident in the final outcome as they imply, then why are they making it more difficult for the world at large to see the building as it nears completion?

Throughout this revitalization, scope has remained the same as originally outlined in the 2014 capital profile—balancing exterior attractiveness with interior service improvements, addressing safety and building code issues, increasing energy efficiency, while at the same time ensuring fiscal restraint.

No doubt, building code & interior renovations etc. were essential. But, when it came to exterior attractiveness, I wonder how many people would have been satisfied with a simple re-clad that didn't change the geometry of the building. Sure, we probably would've ended up with a boring glass box, but would that have been so bad, knowing what we know now?

Talk about transferring the blame for final approval ... "final design was approved in September of 2016 by the Edmonton Design Committee ". So blame the EDC if you don't like the design is what the Library Board appears to be saying. Wow!!

I just bought a used suv. Equally ugly as this angular design but the suv which won some design awards is still ugly and blobular in my mind. (I’d rather have something looking like all those SUVs that are cycling back to the fin look and are incorporating fins into their side body panels.)

Oh and the suv is called “lava grey” as if different names for the shades of grey somehow make them look different. Grey vehicles are visually dominating our streets.

You know, I really wonder if Donny Iveson or Pilar Martinez from EPL are willing to acknowledge the abject stupidity of what this library has turned into.

On one hand, we have a buffoon of a Mayor, who prefers to criticize Edmontonians who lament the new battle tank. Then, their is Pilar Martinez who is probably actively looking for a job somewhere else to escape this debacle.

No jealousy here. I simply admire the tenacity that Calgary has in seeking out international calibre architecture firms to help cultivate a truly international flavour to their designs and buildings. Don Iveson is more concerned with making sure that his brother in law Chirs Chan, the Executive Director of the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters Society, is happy with expansion of bicycle lanes in the City. Whether it is ramming an absolutely idiotic LRT system down our throats without any thought to tunnelling where logical or elevating as an option, or making sure that the local supplier of calcium chloride is happy with the new stream of income from City Hall, little Donny Iveson just doesn't have the intelligence to see the "big picture." Further to this, we hold an international competition for Blatchford to do what? Oh yes, completely shelf the winning bid.

The lack of any requirement for qualifications for running as a councillor or mayor will doom this City to mediocrity. Calgary has the advantage of having the desire to not only do things well, but to one up Edmonton (lived there before and Calgary radio is very enlightening). If this City Council and sad excuse of a mayor only had the ability to realize that Rome was not built in a day, then we could, for instance, build the LRT properly, stage by stage, or, GASP, maybe even wait to replace the library that doesn't scream "Edmonton Remand Centre v2.0."

Seriously hoping that someone will challenge this buffoon so that we actually have an iota of intelligence in City Hall. We had some level of uptick with Mandel but Donny just doesn't get it.

Sorry for the rant, but if Iveson didn't resort to criticizing Edmontonians, it would be easier to overlook.

Wow. And so the mayor’s votes count for how many votes than the rest of Council?

Also, it’s just a building. No treasured architecture was destroyed in the making of it so is just the issue of cosmetics. It’s a functional asset and hopefully it performs very well as such. So while some amazing, universally liked construction would have been wonderful to look at, it is what it is.

It had given me joy in criticizing it but I see no reason to sink to some hypercritical low over a building. If this stuff happens while Council deals with important issues that affect the lives of the citizens then I’m quite on with them delegating the cosmetic and prettiness issues to committees. Moreover then I’m all for this crazy, wild, unconventional architecture popping up.

Moreover it’s nothing new. Recall the original proposals for the Space Science Centre and then what we got was a dressed up agricultural metal sided silo with flying buttresses or something’s sticking off it. What could have been though!!!

Don’t forget that the corrugated space science centre has been quite ok in the public's view for all these years. And we tear everything down in just 4 of 5 decades anyway. (Eg The old city hall.) So it’s all just a fleeting concern. Is anyone talking anymore about the ugliness of the RAM, clad in cheap substitute facing stones?

I'm still jet lagged, but the ugliness that I stated when all renders first came out has not changed. Fill me in, who is blaming who when the designer baby was chosen to be ugly prior to mom and dad's attempt at conception?